A hat bearing the new logo of the Brooklyn Nets is displayed during a news conference to unveil the new logos of the Brooklyn Nets in New York, Monday, April 30, 2012. The Nets will be moving from New Jersey to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York for the 2012-2013 NBA basketball season. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Photo: Seth Wenig, Associated Press

A hat bearing the new logo of the Brooklyn Nets is displayed during...

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Pedestrians and drivers travel near the under-construction Barclays Center, which will be home to the Brooklyn Nets NBA basketball team, in New York on Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2012. The Brooklyn sports and entertainment arena is slated to open in September, 2012. It will be the first time since the Brooklyn Dodgers left in 1957 that the borough will have a major league sports team to call its own. The New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders are scheduled to play a preseason hockey game there in October. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

Photo: Kathy Willens, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pedestrians and drivers travel near the under-construction Barclays...

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Construction workers take a lunchtime break from work at the Barclays Center arena on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team, surveyed the ongoing construction for the Nets new home and said he's "very committed" to bringing an NBA title to Brooklyn. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)

Photo: Bebeto Matthews, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Construction workers take a lunchtime break from work at the...

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With the still under-construction Barclay's Center behind him, hip-hop mogul and nets part-owner Jay-Z applauds during a news conference in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Monday, Sept. 26, 2011. Jay-Z will open the team's new Brooklyn arena by performing there next September. "Maybe one, maybe two, maybe three" concerts, he said.

In a back room at the NBA draft lottery Wednesday night, a member of the Sacramento Kings' ownership group approached Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob and made an amplified claim.

"In five years, I think your ownership group could be considered the best in the NBA," the Kings' executive said to Lacob. "I completely get the vision you have for the arena in San Francisco."

This week's visit to New York wasn't just good for Lacob's ego. The lottery trip was also a chance for Lacob and co-owner Peter Guber to tour the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, talk about the renovations at New York City's Madison Square Garden and continue to work on their vision for their own state-of-the-art arena on the San Francisco waterfront.

The Warriors are planning a privately financed arena on Piers 30 and 32, with adjacent retail and restaurant space, to open for the 2017-18 NBA season. The project is expected to cost nearly $1 billion, including construction, refurbishment of the piers and possible bond payments in Oakland.

Lacob said he's seen and studied all 30 NBA arenas. Guber has built dozens of theaters, a handful of professional ballparks and is working on one for the Yankees' Triple-A affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

They listed Bankers Life Fieldhouse, formerly Conseco Fieldhouse, in Indianapolis as a facility that offers one of their favorite viewing experiences, seating 18,000 with great sight lines and a high school feel. But Guber said the Warriors' new arena will probably be bigger because they need to attract major concerts, circuses and conventions to recoup the cost of the project.

The Warriors' owners listed Toronto as having one of the best surrounding areas for a sports facility. Real Sports Bar & Grill, which sits among other entertainment options in Maple Leaf Square outside the Air Canada Centre, was voted North America's Best Sports Bar by ESPN Mobile.

The bar has an extensive menu, 112 beer taps and 199 high-definition televisions, including a two-story screen. Guber said he'd like to create something similar in San Francisco.

They learned quite a bit, and had their opinions, about the New York arenas, too. The Barclays Center is being built on a platform that is triangulated by three busy streets, making traffic and parking a potential mess.

The Warriors could have similar problems, but Lacob said he's hoping to secure more acreage that could be used for parking in San Francisco. Like the Barclays Center, which is accessible by subway, rail and 11 bus lines, the San Francisco arena will be transit friendly because of Muni Metro, BART, the new Transbay Terminal, and ferry and water taxi opportunities, the Warriors believe.

The Barclays Center has unique artwork on its exterior - three pre-weathered and rusted bands that look like lattice work. The Warriors want to make their new arena distinctive, too.

Lacob said that the Warriors have used one architect to design the structure's base and that he'll hire another to design an exterior that is "architecturally significant" to the city. He said the arena will have windows on three sides, so fans can see AT&T Park, the cityscape and the Bay Bridge. He even joked with a Nets executive that the Warriors might hire renowned architect Frank Gehry, who originally designed a $1 billion version of the Barclays Center.

Madison Square Garden is the second oldest arena in the league, younger than Oracle Arena by two years. The Garden was first renovated in 1991, and the current $850 million renovation was started in 2011.

The Garden has been able to add 89 suites, including some on the lower level. There will be larger entrances, interactive kiosks, wider concourses and upgrades in video boards, seating and locker rooms. The most distinctive addition might be two pedestrian walkways suspended from the ceiling to allow fans to look directly down at games.

"We are going to have two spectacular new buildings in New York City, and we are going to have two very aggressively managed teams," NBA Commissioner David Stern said. "I think that we are going to have two sold-out arenas, not just for games against each other, but for all games."

In five years, Lacob and Guber hope the commissioner is saying the same thing about a new arena in San Francisco.